Sep 9, 2013

It's Behind You: The Making of ZX Spectrum R-Type

Coding on the ZX Spectrum was tough. As was creating decent art and making sure everything moved along at a respectable pace, and that's why a mere glimpse of R-Type running on Sinclair's humble 8-bit was more than enough to drop jaws all around Europe. The thing felt arcade perfect and quite frankly unbelievable, and that's why said conversion is considered one of the machine's finest, while casually finding itself in all sorts of best-of-all-time Speccy lists.

Finally, you are about to find out how (then) bedroom coder Bob Pape managed to pull it off by reading his just released ebook It's Behind You: The Making of a Computer Game. The 138 pages long book is surprisingly well written, filled with all sorts of information, artwork, ads, bits of code, designs and, well, the complete lowdown on R-Type. Interestingly, you'll also find quite a few words on the Rampage conversion and the whole Spectrum era in there too.

A brilliant and most enlightening read indeed and a freeware PDF you simply have to download! Oh, and do not forget to check out those lovely book extras too.